Rob Bell's Notes from a Yorkshire Internet Megalomaniac

Here I sit, while outside snow is covering the UK, rendering most of the country useless – schools are closed, people can’t get into work, and we’ve run out of rocksalt because the largest mine in the UK can only produce in a week what is being used every day, as local councils try to keep the roads clear.

It’s the ‘worst’ winter in 30 years according to the press, although I beg to differ – it’s the BEST winter in 30 years! Snow may be disruptive, but it’s so very beautiful, with a white blanket covering the everyday dullness of the city, making buildings look ‘postcard pretty’ and presenting a visual splendour out of town as fields and trees proudly display their temporary white overcoats.

Happy New Year to all of you, and all the best for 2010. I’ve got big plans for this year, although I haven’t made any resolutions – actually that’s an untruth, I made one – to go swimming more often as it’s my physical therapy – but I’ve broken it already due to the fact I can’t get to the gym because of the snow! Which brings me onto what I want to discuss today – why New Years Resolutions suck, and why you shouldn’t make them!

I have nothing against planning or setting goals – these are both worthy activities that will help you get where you want to be. In fact, I insist you set some goals and plan towards reaching them – how will you know how you’re going to get where you want to be unless you have a map? However, don’t name them ‘Resolutions’! Why? Because you’re setting yourself up to fail straightaway…

People don’t generally make New Years Resolutions because they are committed to changing a behaviour, getting rid of a bad habit, or achieving something.

People make New Years Resolutions so that they have something to say when other people ask “What are your Resolutions for this year?”.

Over the years, you have probably made hundreds or thousands of resolutions that you’ve later broken… or never even attempted to keep. In people’s minds, New Years Resolutions are things you make but don’t make the most of. So what if they fail – millions of other people have done exactly the same thing… 2 or 3 weeks into the New Year, old habits reemerge and new improvements slide back to 2009 levels. Subconsciously, we know that New Years Resolutions are useless – a traditional pastime borne of the New Year, soon forgotten as winter fades into memory.

Okay so some people manage to keep their resolutions – but I reckon they’re in the minority. More people give up smoking in the New Year than at any other time of year, and hopefully many remain non-smokers forever… but the majority eventually return to tobacco’s vice-like grip and the comfort of the burning stick of reduced lifespan.

So this year, don’t make any New Years Resolutions. Save yourself the time and effort and future disappointment as you go back on your festively-induced promises.

Instead go out and buy yourself a notebook. In that notebook write down the things you want to achieve in 2010.

Once you have those goals written down, then you can start to plan how you’re going to achieve them.

Once you have your plan, start working towards your goals. Keep it positive and you’re more likely to succeed.

I hope you’re having a great snowed-in day, and let’s all look forward to a successful 2010 filled with fun and laughter (but not Miley Cyrus!)

Rob Bell

Another day of snow in Blighty – I woke up (hideously early at 8am!) to go to my first course today – and it was snowing away merrily outside the windows. Shivering, and seriously tempted to get back under the nice warm duvet, I forced myself to adapt to this time I’ve normally seen when going to bed lately, rather than getting up, and make my way into a rather chilly kitchen to put the kettle on.

20 minutes later I’m braving the snow covered roads to travel the couple of miles to the location of my first course today – Book Keeping and Accounts – a Business Link course I’m taking because I haven’t really used the accountancy skills I learned at university since university! I had an awful feeling that the course would either have been cancelled or no one had turned up due to the weather – but to my surprise there were 10 of us there, and the course ran as normal. I wasn’t that big a fan of accountancy in my younger days – at 16 I spent a summer on work experience in a friend of the family’s accountancy firm. This was where I discovered that, although I find working with numbers relatively straightforward, I don’t have any desire to fill my days with number-related work. After 6 weeks I knew I would never be an Accountant!

19 years later, I find myself needing to be more involved in numbers – fortunately technology has come on a long way in 20 years, and I can run all my accounting functions through some nifty software – currently I’m using Freshbooks and TAS, but I’m looking towards some accounting software that integrates more thoroughly with Freshbooks because I am quite literally in love with Freshbooks as my invoicing, time tracking, estimating and customer support tool! Unfortunately, most of the stuff I’ve come across so far is set up for US tax, and I need a UK version!

After the course I made my way over to Hospital for an appointment with my specialist, who has very nicely put me on a course of different painkillers as my current ones weren’t being as effective as they used to… Only time will tell if the new ones are any good – I hope so, I’m sick of cold-weather pain at the moment, and it reduces my ability to get around! I am 37 going on 107 some days!

Then at 6pm I went to my second course of the day – Business Planning. When I’d got home from the hospital I’d got quite comfy so going out again wasn’t the easiest job in the world… However, when you really decide to take control of your life the sofa isn’t the quicksand it once was and escape wasn’t that hard. Now don’t laugh…

I got to the venue and parked up and hobbled up to the door, buzzed and waited for a response. Nothing.
Buzzed again…. and again nothing. So I ambled round the front to the main doors – which had security gates pulled shut and the lights were all off… ‘Strange’ I thought, so I took out my booking form and rang the number. Unfortunately it was after 6 so there was only out of hours cover, but she said someone would call me straight back… 3 hours later I’m still waiting, so I’m glad I decided to drive home rather than wait there for the call!

After making a cuppa, I sat down with my diary and looked at the details again… right time – yes, right place – yes. Hmmmm, so I looked at the booking confirmation email – right time, yes – right places – yes, right month – NOOO!!! Yes, Mr Thicky here turned up a whole 28 days too early for the course, which rather explains the closed building I guess – Oops a daisy Rob! So here I sit feeling somewhat lacking in intelligence for my calendar-ical error. Stupid Stupid Rob! Gotta laugh though, eh?!?!

I’ve been out once this week already with my camera photographing wintry scenes at a Lake nearby, and think I’m going out again tomorrow. After discovering HDR imagery recently, I find myself motivated to go out in the cold to get some rather nice pics, if I do say so myself. Here’s one from Newmillerdam lake, a few miles from here. I’ve applied some HDR effects to create the effect.

As I was snapping, I was lucky to catch this moment of madness too – I laughed for about 10 mins after it happened, and I’m so chuffed I managed to snap it – do not feed the birds, people! It nearly smacked the guy straight in the face – missed him by millimetres!

Rob